Elevated-railway system



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. BLBVATBD RAILWAY SYSTEM; No. 510,878. Patented Dee. 19, 1898.

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.110. 510,878. Patente/11 Dec. 19, 1898.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

BURR F. BARNES, OF CIROLEVILLE, OHIO.

ELEVATED-RAILWAY SYSTEM.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 510,878, dated December19, 1893.

Application tiled April 11, 1893. Serial No. 469,919. (No model.)

To a/ZZ whom it may concern.-

Beit known that I, BURR F. BARNES, a citizen of the United States,residing at Circleville, in the county of Pickaway and State of Ohio,have invented certain new and useful Improvementsin Elevated-RailwaySystems; and I do declare the following to be a full, clear, and exactdescription ot' the invention, such as will enable others skilled in theart to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being hadto the accompany ing drawings, and to the letters of reference markedthereon, which form a part of this specification.

My invention relates to overhead systems of railway, and more especiallydesigned for the rapid transportation of mail, express packages, &c.,although, not limited tothese, as by proper adaptation it can beemployed for carrying persons,

In connection with the special purpose indicated it has been my objectto provide an efficient apparatus that will automatically opcrate tocollect and deliver at certain points, the objects to be transported.

To the ends indicated my invention consists in the mechanism and in theconstruction and combination of parts thereof, as more fully hereinafterspecified.

In the accompanying drawings: Figure 1 is a side View of the car Iemploy for carrying mail, a portion of the side being broken away; Fig.2 a vertical cross section of the same, and the rail supportingdevices;Fig. 3 aplan view, showing a portion of the car and the devicesat two stations to illustrate the manner of collecting and deliveringmail sacks;

V Fig. 4, a perspective view of a portion of the car, and the mechanismat a station, the parts being shown ready to discharge or deliver mail;Fig. 5 a detail View of the door opening track; Fig. 6 a detail View ofa turn-table device, that may be used to transfer the cars from onetrack to the other; Fig. 7 a det-ail horizontal section on line 7-7 ofFig. l.

In carrying my invention into practice, I employ two, preferablyparallel lines of rails A, A, one of which is designed for cars movingin one direction and the other in the opposite direction. Said rails aresupported above the ground upon posts B placed at intervals apart,consisting of angle iron bars bolted or riveted together, and curved orspread apart at theirlower ends where, being attached to or mounted on atimber b or rock, they are embedded or sunk into the earth, so that theportion above the latter will occupy but little space, and thus notinterfere `with the use of the ground for other purposes.

The rails are connected together by numerous cross tiesC extendingbetween their inner faces, and braced and supported by rods or wireropes c, that run from a cable D that extends from vertical extensions bof the posts B.

The rails A can be all metal, or wood and metal combined.

The car I employ consists of a long h ollow body E preferably pointed atits frontend and having flanged or grooved wheels to engage the rails ouboth its upper and lower ledge and being so hung as to have its centerof gravity well below the rail. The' driving wheel e is made larger thanthe others and is located at the front end in a housing or hood likeextension e. The shaft of said wheel carries a sprocket wheel e2 that isconnected by a sprocket chain with a sprocket-wheel f driven by auelectric motor F, placed in the front of the car, and located below thelevel of the rail A. Electricity to run the motor is preferably takenfrom a wire conductor g supported from the cross ties C, by a trolley orcurrent collector f carried on the upper slide of the car. The car isdesigned to be sentout from one terminus of the line, and to travelunattended continuously to the other terminus, suitable means beingprovided at each point in the form of switches to cut a portion of theconductor in and out of circuit to start and stop the car. Power toproduce the necessary current to drive the car can be readily obtainedby utilizing water falls, &c., occurring in the country through whichthe road passes.

The car is divided up intoanumber of compartments G, G by verticalvpartitions h, h, each of which is closed by a doorH, at its bottom andall being closed at one side, by a door I extending lengthwise theentire distance taken by all of the compartments, and vertically nearlyone half the height of the car. The opening closed by the side door I isthe mail'admitting opening, while the open- IOO ings closed by thebottom doors are delivery openings.

The door I is automatically opened to a horizontal position at eachstation by means of a track or bar J suitably supported at the station,which has a twisted portion j to engage a roller t' carried at the endof an arm rigidly attached to the door, and swing its axis from ahorizontal to a vertical position, as clearly shown in Figs.2 and 5. Theface of thetrack engaged by the roller gradually changes from ahorizontal to a vertical plane, and the plane of the whole trackgradually rises.

Pivoted near the outer rear side of each compartment G, is a verticalshaft K carrying a series of fingers 7c, that are swung outward to theposition shown in Fig. 3 when the door I is opened, by means of a lug t"on the door which engages two lugs 7c', 7c on the shaft and operates toturn the latter. When the door closes these devices operate to swing thefingers 7.5, 7i; within their respective compartments. When the fingersare in the position shown in Fig. 3 they are designed to catch mailsacks, placed in position for them in the following way: At each stationbetween the termini of the road, I mount in suitable supports Z, Z avertical shaft I, which carries a number of radial arms, M. On theextremity of each arm M are several, preferably two, fingers m, m towhich a mail bag N can be attached by means of rings fn, n on the bagthat are slipped over the fingers. These fingers and ringsact to holdthe bag in avertical po` sition where it can be engaged by the fingers kof the passing car and carried into the latter. The fingers 7s at thefront of the car will engage the first bag, and operating much after themanner of a rock bar will turn the shaft L to bring the next bag inposition to be caught by the second fingers It', and so on withsucceeding bags and lingers 7c.

The shaft L is so located relative to the car that the bags are carriedby the fingers m into the car, by its rotation. At each succeedingstation from the starting pointI propose to have one arm M less, asindicated in Fig. 3. The automatic delivery is effected by the followingmeans: Each door I-I is held closed by a lock comprised of a lug h onits inner side and a latch o carried at the lower end of a vertical rockshaft O. This rock shaft has at its upper end a radial arm o that isconnected with a sliding rod P, moving in guides secured to partition7L. When pressed inward the rod P turns the shaft O to cause it todisengage its latch o from the lug It', whereupon the door of itsgravity and the weight of the mail sack, will immediately fall open.Said rod P is pressed inward by means of an arm or extension m frompreferably the last arm M of the bag holding device, which by theturning of the latter is passed through an opening in the car side intoposition to be engaged by the outer enlarged end of the rod P as the carmoves along. Preferably the rod has a lip or flange p to engage the armm to insure its being swung forward as the car moves and thus compel itto carry the rod inward as described. The rod P is pressed normallyoutward by a coiled spring p', and the latch o has its under facebeveled, like a door latch to enable the lug to press it to one side andlock as the door H is closed.

As the unlocking of the door H takes place when the door I is open, Iemploy the closing of the latter to close automatically said door H, bymeans of a bell-crank lever Q pivoted to each partition h one of whosearms is connected by a rod q with the door II, and the otherof whosearms q is adapted to be struck and the lever thereby moved by the door Iwhen closing. Vhen the door lI is opened the arm q is projected outwardinto the path of the door I.

The two tracks may be connected by a circular extension at the ends ofthe line to en able cars to be passed from one track to the other, or,as shown in Fig. 6, a turn table may be used comprising a section oftrack fr carried on an arm R pivoted midway the rails, and adapted to beturned so as to be in line with one or the other. The cars are simplyrun out on this section r and it then swings into alignment with theother rail.

A buffer S is placed at the front end of the carto avoid injuriousshocks from collisions with other cars or other objects.

I claiml. In combination with the door, the shaft, carrying fingers andthe connection between the shaft and door, to move the fingers out andin.

2. In combination with the delivery door and its latch mechanism theswinging arm adapted to engage and operate the latter as the car movesalong.

3. In combination the car having the receiving and delivery doors, themeans for opening both, and means operated by the former to close thelatter.

et. In combination the car having the receiving and delivery doors, themeans for opening both, the bell-crank lever adapted to he engaged andmoved by the former, and the rod connecting said lever and the deliverydoor.

In testimony' whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

BURR F. BARNES.

Witnesses:

I. B. BARNES, J. G. SMITH.

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